I've been drinking (exclusively) red wine since I was about 10, but until I came to live in Portugal the choice was usually based on the "it's red and it's cheap" basis.
Then, a couple of years ago, I wondered what "the good stuff" tasted like, so I splashed out and spent 70 euros on a bottle (here in Portugal I could have got 30 bottles of pretty decent stuff, in bottles, with corks, for that price). It was something of a revelation - not 30 times better, to be sure, but definitely better.
And that's started me on the "wine trail" of learning, questioning, tasting, buying, tasting, drinking, questioning, traveling - exclusively with Portuguese wines (although I have some old French wine from when I lived there) - I'm starting to develop a serious fondness for pure Baga from Bairrada.

Of course that led me to visit Porto, and ride the train up and down the Douro.

But my interest in Vinho do Porto has been sparked by 2 things...

1. When I was 16 my mother gave me a bottle of this 1963 Port (she said it was a much better year than the 1960, my birth year)

and I discovered that perhaps it was getting to the point where it ought to be drunk (possibly even a bit past it) - previously I'd thought vintage port lasted forever.

2. Portuguese news went on and on and on (and on some more) about how great the 2011 Vintage was, so I started looking into that, and I started seeing some for sale in supermarkets, and wine shops - with prices ranging from 35 euros to 300 euros, and I wondered why it was so fine, and why the price difference, which was what brought me here to this site.

3. After dinner out in town, I started drinking a glass (or 2) of port in the local cafés (euro a glass, or sometimes less, stuff)

So that's how I came to be here.

I doubt I'll have much to say, but I'll be doing a whole lot of listening, and I'd love to find some tastings.

flash_uk wrote:Your 63 - has it been nicely stored all these years? Should drink very nicely now.

I can say, hand on heart, that I've always tried to store it as best I could.
Always horizontal (almost), and in the coolest (but not frozen) place i could find. It spent a while in the UK, a while in France, and now it sits in a pretty cool north facing room in our little farmhouse near Portalegre - the walls are a metre thick so it rarely if ever gets warm, or actually very cold.
Time will tell - this year sometime.

I've been religiously practicing my decanting technique over the last year - 200 bottles to date (almost all red wine) - I've almost got it right now